Regarding the VIP escort mission bad result: Yup, the game is scripted to try to intercept the VIP. I have learned to move the VIP no more than normal movement range (not Rushing range) and to have a couple of escort troopers near him/her on Overwatch at the end of each turn.

I didn't have a chance to even do that. Everyone had gone on that turn and it gave me the option to move the VIP for the end of that turn. I moved him into cover, the aliens went, and he was dead.

Just suffered a devastating loss. I downed a small scout UFO with a intercepter equipped with EMP. UFO crashed pretty much 100% intact. Fought my way easily enough to what I thought was the last alien, a Sectoid Commander. Once I got my Assault (Colonel Jarrodhk) close enough to stun, I miss on a 90% chance to stun. Next turn the Sectoid takes control of my most experienced Heavy (Colonel Soulchilde). Soulchilde starts his next turn by firing his rocket launcher at our bunched up group. Then 3 elite Muton show up and proceeds to decimate my whole team in two turns by accurate fire and grenades. I lost 3 Colonel's and 3 Majors. Iron Man mode strikes again

We do have a message to pass on to you. The Master of planet %@#$%!@#$ would like to speak to you about considering a management position in his newly formed invasion force posed to attack some minor blue-green orbiting a yellow sun. He will require you to sign a NDA until the invasion is launched, but he assures me that you will well compensated with whatever you desire from the target planet.

Completed my second Alien Base assault. I won this battle, on Easy difficulty , unlike the first on Normal which was a blood bath. Better tactics also helped; I set up kill zones and used my Goliath to lure in the enemy. After the Goliath was destroyed I used one of my lower ranked soldiers who "volunteered" to move through each door and see what was cooking. The second time this did this she bumped into a Berserker who clawed her a lot. She ran away and the Berserker followed... right into four well prepared soldiers all on Overwatch.

The results of the successful base assault surprised me; I won't reveal them as they are potential spoilers. However, I feel like a whole new chapter of the game has opened to me, which is very cool.

They do if carried by someone who gets killed with one of the Second Wave options active, but that's all I can think of.

Has anyone confirmed that the Second Wave options are actually in the game? I seem to recall reading somewhere that they finished the game but didn't see any additional options.

Some Googling suggested Second Wave was some various options people saw in .ini files for the demo (little tweak options to make the campaign longer, or make certain aspects more difficult, etc.), but the posts I saw suggested there is no such thing in the actual game options after completing the campaign.

It might've been just for testing, or perhaps it's some initial "hooks" for different modes Firaxis might consider adding later on. Or maybe they just put them there to drive gamers crazy. What is it??? What does it all mean? Is it an Alien/Firaxis conspiracy???? Is Jake Solomon actually a Chrysalid who's electronically impregnated us all with Sid Meier baby psychic zombies via digital distribution of XCOM?

Update: The 2K community rep confirmed there is NO "Second Wave" option in the game. It's something the devs wanted to do but couldn't get implemented in time for release. He said they'd like to revisit the idea at some point.

The "Second Wave" settings that some people have found by digging in to the game files was a feature that the team was toying around with, but it was not ever finished by the time the game released. Its something the dev team at Firaxis is still interested in going back to and working on, but at this point we dont have any firm plans to share.

Ok... this is something I'd like changed. When you send a soldier for Psi evaluation he brings his gear along. I was searching everyone's locker looking for some missing armor and it turned out the dummy had brought it will him to class!

And why did they make the harder difficulties so arbitrarily difficult? The cheating AI accuracy is exactly why I was complaining about Classic difficulty. I really don't mind difficult tasks in games, but Classic just seemed like it cheated, and now I know it was. It was bad enough that there were so many more enemies, but now they're all super accurate.

When I see games handle difficulty like that, I just think that the designers are designing higher difficulties more as a masochistic grind to see how long you can last through, rather than a real challenge tactically and strategically.

Tilt says I have spoilers in my reports so I'll use the spoiler tag. This is just a terror mission report.

Spoiler for Hiden:

JZ had a busy terror missionHere JZ avoids certain death thanks to the foresight of Cmd Zinfan who trained her in lightning reflexes.

Thanks to 10 mutons and a cyberdisc, JZ was pinned down behind the burnt out truck. I managed to snipe some of the mutons with Maj Lockdown but the cyberdisc was going to be a problem. JZ's only chance was a reaction shot in overwatch as I couldn't move her out of cover.

Lucky for us the saucer obliged by floating through the burnt out truck!

Of course the disc blew up right on top of JZ and did some damage but Cmd Zinfan again proved to be ahead of the game as his one support medic was ready to use the medkit.

A bit later on my only other support man, Blackjack got in a pickle when 3 mutons appeared just when the misson seemed over. Blackjack tossed an Alien grenade that did damage to two of them as you can see by the burning walls near the mutons. But the other muton was in good position to fire on him and Harkonis was out of moves and taking cover behind the desks.

JZ couldn't get close enough to try a shot at any of the mutons but I did a run n gun as near as I could and put her in overwatch. Good choice as she kills the muton that tried to rush Blackjack, I'm glad she has a plasma rifle.

One final reaction shot by JZ wounds the final muton enough so that Harkonis can move in for the stun.

Well it is now the last day of June and I'm about to assault the enemy base, I'm hoping the situation room will look better than this after the mission.

And here is the list of our hero's, the only choice at the moment is do I take a Goliath in place of one of these guys? The two snipers at the bottom of the list are out as I never use them since they were mission rewards. I do use the support guy since he is the only one I have besides Blackjack who lucky for him has to sit this base attack out with two days left in hospital.

Again there may be spoilers in my reports. This is the first base attack mission report.

Spoiler for Hiden:

The base attack mission is done, how well did the X-Com team do? Lets see. Here is the squad sent into the baseWho is coming back?The assault starts well when two chryssilids scuttle forth chasing the SHIV and Col. Lockdown gets one with a overwatch shot!

Some good positioning has placed JZ near enough to the second chryssilid that a plasma rifle shot ends the threat.

Three more chryassilids are seen to scurry off into the dark depths of the base.

The SHIV is invaluable on this mission as it scouts the way and triggers another ambush by the chryasslids. I was very cautious to have lots of overwatch covering fire as we see in the next few screenshots. In the first Harkonis is damaging the first one

Then JZ finishes it off

Blackjack is in another good spot to let off a reaction shot

And finally Lockdown is ready with the sniper rifle to get the last one.

I must say having Lockdown ranked up to Col. and having the double tap ability rocks, he took out two drones in one turn from way back on the map.

Just after downing the chrysslids, the SHIV flushed out some floaters but again taking my time and keeping at least 3 of the squad on overwatch paid off as Hark and JZ tag team the hapless floater. The second floater died as soon as the turn ended.

So how did it all end up in the end? I need to break this into another post so keep reading to see who made it back.

Time for the final reckoning so cross those fingers and hope you made it back!

No losses! Everyone gets a ride home in first class but who is heading over to check out the nurses while they recover from valorous wounds?

Sorry boys only Goliath gets some attention, the rest of you report back to the barracks and get ready for the next mission.

And now the worldwide report card

I may be turning this around now, time for the Commander to take a well deserved break. This mission should have been titled Operation Overwatch Overwatch as I spent so much time working slowly up the base but I brought everybody back (Normal/Ironman settings)so yeah me.

Great report, i'm still early in my game but i like your play style, I have a tendency to use overwatch as much as possible but I really am a wuss when playing. The atmosphere created in the game i superb, from the way the thin men move and look to the movement of the aliens when you spot them scurrying away etc all gives a great feel to the game.

Hey Zinfan, there are a lot of spoilers in your screenshot reports. You might want to use spoiler tags. I'm past that point in the game so it doesn't bother me, but it could ruin some of the surprises for others.

I finally got a chance to fire up my 360 and give this a shot. I only had 20 minutes or so, but I got through the first two missions. I was worried about the control scheme on the 360 compared to the PC, but so far I haven't had any issues. I'm very excited to get back to it. Sadly, it might not happen until Tuesday.

Any suggestions on the early research? The first option was weapons or armor, and I went with armor.

Logged

Tune in to hear me spout nonsense about Fantasy Football every Thursday evening at 6:08.

Nothing too special, but most of the game was the tactical elements, I wasn't playing this for the story.

Spoiler for Hiden:

So it was clear the Ethereals were up to something besides complete conquest, and now we have to find out what else they were afraid of when it comes looking for us.

Here's one of the few games I'm really looking forward to DLC for. Although I really hope that either they, or the mod community, patches up the game to have some elements be closer to the original. I'm fine with gamification, especially since I love board games, I think they could have included a bit more tactical decisions.

Nothing too special, but most of the game was the tactical elements, I wasn't playing this for the story.

Spoiler for Hiden:

So it was clear the Ethereals were up to something besides complete conquest, and now we have to find out what else they were afraid of when it comes looking for us.

Here's one of the few games I'm really looking forward to DLC for. Although I really hope that either they, or the mod community, patches up the game to have some elements be closer to the original. I'm fine with gamification, especially since I love board games, I think they could have included a bit more tactical decisions.

Ive finished normal and started on Classic and there you have to use more tactics. Hunker down and flanking are way more important all of a sudden. I suspect the same will be true of suppress.

If people are modding and digging into the game's innards to adjust the game or add to it, that's awesome imho. No game's perfect at release. If the fans can make XCOM better or "the way some people wanted it to be," that's great. Power to the people. That's what's great (hopefully) about it being done with a "known" engine (Unreal) rather than something from scratch that no fan would be familiar with.

Me, I'd rather have something like a "skirmish" mode on randomly chosen maps, and maybe give me some control over what mix of aliens will attack. I think that would give it some life after campaign completion, esp. if you prefer the tactical combat over the base/econo managing and the multiplayer doesn't interest you/me. I hope fans can do something like that, if Firaxis won't. And of course I love co-op in this sort of thing on the tactical side (you control 3 guys, I control 3 guys, etc.), would like that mode some day. Co-op Incubation was awesome.

I dig the train station map. Some pics...

"Hey, this train is too drafty! Can I exchange my ticket?"

"I said, 'There's NO smoking allowed on the train!'"

"Aw, I hate shooting through train windows anyway."

Later I had an awesome moment where I again had a Chrysalid drop on top of my guy (a sniper, who'd just climbed onto building's rooftop via drainpipe). I remembered what I'd read about moving your guys away, and putting as many into overwatch mode as you can. Plus this time I had laser rifles, and a couple laser pistols available. So the sniper dropped down to the street, got a couple guys inside the building into overwatch, and a couple outside, and the cool teamwork finished it.

Of course that's ONE, not the three that dropped on my team and wiped us out in Iron Man. At least I'm learning.

One more question. Is there any penalty for not immediately pushing the story missions along? I feel like if i delay those it gives me more time to research critical things for my troops and thus prevent them from being slaughtered.

One more question. Is there any penalty for not immediately pushing the story missions along? I feel like if i delay those it gives me more time to research critical things for my troops and thus prevent them from being slaughtered.

Not really, as long as you can manage the world panic levels. Though the aliens will continue to advance as well, there's definitely a sweet spot of when to hit it I think.

BTW- Verified that second wind does work. And it is AWESOME. The options I applied make the game feel like it was MEANT to feel.

*Random stats for rookie soldiers make things like high aim Heavies possible. This, in turn, makes it feasable to take different skill choices. I ignored Holo-Targeting right off the bat and took the shooting doesn't end your turn ability. Would have never done that with a traditional heavy.

*Random Economy makes the nations have randomized cash values. Not a realism breaker, as it's not like (for instance) the US would contribute every last defense budget dime to an experimental project consisting of 100 people. So I think of it as 'national buy in'. This makes it so South America isn't always a garbo continent. Mixes it up.

*Marathon mode is great. It doubles the cost of practically everything and doubles research values while halving panic levels. It may do some other things I've yet to see. I've yet to see much of an effect on experience gain- but I'm not very far in. I imagine that this will encourage more intellegent base expansion and reliance on laboratories and workshop synergy. It'll make the base metagame a lot more influential.

All in all, I'm having a really hard time understanding why a massive list of features that give the game a huge amount of replay value were turned off.

I'm having trouble installing these mods, I'm going to try to uninstall and then reinstall the game to see if that works.

I want to remind folks that while I posted the items about the mod, I can't vouch for it myself as I'm still in my first play-through and haven't tried installing it yet. A few people in that Steam forum thread indicate that they have installed the mod and like it, but YMMV. Certainly if the mod does what people indicate, it's pretty awesome.

On the PC do you ever just have the game sort of go off into La La land on a turn? There are times it doesn't seem to know how to end the aliens turn or I cant tell my last soldier what to do and I have to end task on the game.

On the PC do you ever just have the game sort of go off into La La land on a turn? There are times it doesn't seem to know how to end the aliens turn or I cant tell my last soldier what to do and I have to end task on the game.

Okay like Forgefrosaken said, Classic difficulty is where I believe the game is at its best. The Aliens AI seems much more tactically proficient and flanking, cover, and they seem to break contact at the right times. Totally different game than normal. Battles are much longer for me as well. I see an enemy group, have my heavy supress and law down cover fire while Assaults bold flank. Support smoke grenades seem more relevant as is the placement of the sniper.I'm using the mod that enables the second wave options and I have to say I'm puzzled why these didn't make it on release because most of the second wave mutators are fantastic

I'm using the mod that enables the second wave options and I have to say I'm puzzled why these didn't make it on release because most of the second wave mutators are fantastic

I'm assuming this is the mod I linked to before? Which I take it means you got the mod to install correctly . Please pass on any suggestions regarding installation if different than the included instructions.

Quote from: USMC Kato on October 15, 2012, 02:16:40 AM

Okay like Forgefrosaken said, Classic difficulty is where I believe the game is at its best. The Aliens AI seems much more tactically proficient and flanking, cover, and they seem to break contact at the right times. Totally different game than normal.Battles are much longer for me as well. I see an enemy group, have my heavy supress and law down cover fire while Assaults bold flank. Support smoke grenades seem more relevant as is the placement of the sniper.

If your are using the mod listed above then the AI is playing unshackled but without the classic level bonuses. So, looks pretty good?

I'm using the mod that enables the second wave options and I have to say I'm puzzled why these didn't make it on release because most of the second wave mutators are fantastic

I'm assuming this is the mod I linked to before? Which I take it means you got the mod to install correctly . Please pass on any suggestions regarding installation if different than the included instructions.

Quote from: USMC Kato on October 15, 2012, 02:16:40 AM

Okay like Forgefrosaken said, Classic difficulty is where I believe the game is at its best. The Aliens AI seems much more tactically proficient and flanking, cover, and they seem to break contact at the right times. Totally different game than normal.Battles are much longer for me as well. I see an enemy group, have my heavy supress and law down cover fire while Assaults bold flank. Support smoke grenades seem more relevant as is the placement of the sniper.

If your are using the mod listed above then the AI is playing unshackled but without the classic level bonuses. So, looks pretty good?

Yes I successfully installed the mod correctly this time. I'm confident that Firaxis will patch in the second wave options and other tweaks in no time The few mods that I have enabled are working as they have intended, which is pure XCOM fun.

Any insights on plasma rifles? How do they differ from lasers? Wasn't sure if I Need to research it or not.

I'll spoiler the answer in case people want to find out on their own.

Spoiler for Hiden:

Plasma is better than Laser, more damage, IMO

I'll ask a question.... S.C.O.P.E. or Alien Grenade as a backpack item? I feel like I don't get that many chances to use a grenade, but I shoot all the time.

About weapons

Spoiler for Hiden:

Light Plasma also gives a +10% accuracy bonus.

The SCOPE always goes on my snipers. I want to make sure they get their shots on target whenever they can fire, since it can be difficult to get them into a good position.

It's a good thing to keep at least some grenades in your squad. Explosives destroy cover, affect multiple targets, and do very consistent damage. You can use them to blow up cover and blast away, hurt clusters of enemies to finish them off in one turn. There's also situations later where enemies get right up near you and will kill you if you don't kill it, so having a grenade do reliable damage is a good thing. Finally, that reliable and consistent damage is also good for knocking off just enough health so you can stun the target.

The SCOPE always goes on my snipers. I want to make sure they get their shots on target whenever they can fire, since it can be difficult to get them into a good position.

It's a good thing to keep at least some grenades in your squad. Explosives destroy cover, affect multiple targets, and do very consistent damage. You can use them to blow up cover and blast away, hurt clusters of enemies to finish them off in one turn. There's also situations later where enemies get right up near you and will kill you if you don't kill it, so having a grenade do reliable damage is a good thing. Finally, that reliable and consistent damage is also good for knocking off just enough health so you can stun the target.

Good words, thanks

Did I mention Terror Missions? I hate them . I have made it a rule that I take down the aliens as a priority rather than send my soldiers running into buildings looking for civvies where they get eating by chryssalids!!!

I got the game due to the forum effect and I am loving it way more than I should be right now. I seriously need to be playing and finishing AC Revolutions before the 30th.I cant seem to figure out where and how you customize your squad colors, and how do you swap out for a particular squad member or a S.H.I.V?